Preserving wood



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC GREGORY LUKINS, OF SWEETVVATER, ILLINOIS.

PRESERVING WOOD.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 245,845, dated August 16, 1881.

Application filed April 16, 1881.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GREGORY LUKINS, of Sweetwa-ter, in the county ot'Menard and State of Illinois, have invented a new and Improved Composition for and Method of Preserving Wood, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to preserve wood from decay and destruction by insects by a simple and inexpensive method, and the improvement is applicable for preservin g railroadties, piling, bridge-timbers, wooden frames of all kinds, fence-posts, &c.

The composition which Iuse consists of the following materials in about the proportions given onequarter pound of carbonate of potash, one pound ofsaltpeter, and fifty pounds of common salt used dry or dissolved in water. In applying it, the timber, post, or other article is to be bored from the end to form a chamber or hole, which is then filled with the dry or liquid compound and the end then plugged tightly. The wood will graduallytake up the mixture until it is saturated throughout and the pores filled with the residuum of the composition left by evaporation. Eggs andinsects in the wood are killed and natural decay ar- (No specimens.)

rested. After a period of, say, six or eight years, when the wood will have taken up all the mixture, the hole is to be refilled by removing the plug and injecting the liquid as before, or in case theplug is inaccessible the timber may be bored at the side to give access to the hole, and the hole plugged again.

When treated with this composition Wood is almost indestructible by fire,

This composition is inexpensive, the mode of application can be readily carried out, and the result effective.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- A composition of matter consisting of carbonate of potash one part, saltpeter four parts, and common salt two hundred parts, for the purpose specified.

his GREGORY LUKINS.

mark. -Witnesses:

F. V. ALKERE, L. LUKINs. 

